releasing my inner artist

"This is an early VandenBerghe piece, circa 1995. It’s still too early to guess how much it could be worth, after all, the prolific painter is still developing as an artist."

I'm not sure why the flowers are hearts, but we'll say it's an abstract painting that symbolizes  something that was very important to 9-year-old Alissa. 

That’s what I’m imagining the art dealer will tell people at my first show, and then the art buyer will shell out thousands of dollars for one of my “originals.”

Hahaha, unlikely I know, but a girl can dream right? I know this piece of art is right where it’s supposed to be: in a box labeled “Alissa’s Creative Crap” – I kid you not, that is what the box is called – in my old bedroom in my parents’ basement. It took a lot of  heavy lifting to get “Ken’s Creative Crap” box off of mine, but as you can tell from the masterpiece above it was worth it.

Don’t think my parents don’t value my art, because they do, this painting hung in our basement for years. I'm pretty sure they've cherished my many masterpieces. Which is saying a lot, because as a chronic dabbler I've dabbled in almost every medium out there.

I've painted. I've scrap booked. I've wood worked. I've decoupaged. I've beaded. I've embroidered. I've made friendship bracelets. I've calligraphied.

Most interests lasted a few weeks before the paint brushes were forgotten and something else caught my interest. Hopefully, now you can see that the “Creative Crap” box was probably a coping mechanism my parents used to deal with my many many phases of an "artist."

It's been a few years since I unleashed the artist within – after all, I have to pay for supplies myself now and that changes things. But a month or so ago my mom and I signed up for a painting class at Palettes and Pairings. Not only do they supply you with everything you need to paint a work of art and lead you step-by-step through the process but they also supply you with wine to help coax your shy artist out. 

This was the first painting we made:

It's supposed to be the Seattle skyline with a puddle reflection at the bottom, but I can understand if that wasn't clear when you first saw the picture. We left accuracy at the door and went for something else instead. 

The class was fun, the wine was good and my mom and I enjoyed spending time together. So we signed up for another class at a different studio, CANVAS! Paint and Sip Studio. This was what we painted at that class:

Our own take on Monet's poppies.

My dad joined us for our third and most challenging class, a mountain. We experimented with a palette knife; it wasn't easy and I think I heard some cursing, but in the end, the paintings turned out great:

Guess which mountains we painted and when you think you know tell us because we can't figure it out either.

By now I was really into the swing of things with these wine and painting classes and wanted more of a challenge. So I checked around to see if there were any acrylic painting classes offered at Bellevue College, and sure enough there was. Never being one to take a hobby too far (ha!), I registered for the class and printed my supply list. 

I just signed away six Tuesday evenings from 6-10 p.m. and a good chunk of change for the class and my tub of art supplies. Hopefully this hobby sticks at least until I run out of paint. 

My class starts in about a week and a half so I'll keep you all updated on my progress and I might even get you a deal on a piece of art. I'll remember you all when I'm rich and famous, I promise. ;)